I hope you liked it....although I much prefer Zauberflote and Figaro and I think I've seen Cosi more than any of the others...but Giovanni has some very fine moments....and the occasional "inside joke" like the musical quote from Figaro that I had forgotten all about.

We see the simulcasts in a small theatre at the local community college, under ths sponsorship of Opera Roanoke, which treated the audience to a marvelous catered spread in honor of National Opera Week.

I liked the Leperello a lot...a bit disappointed in Donna Anna. As for the Don...ok, but not Siepi.

Wow! That is one hell of an opera, and I'm not talking about just the ending. I didn't like the drab set, but I liked everything else. Kwiecien was impressive, bouncing around like an athlete only two weeks after back surgery. Two weeks! So many different kinds of music...lyrical, intense, charming, menacing, and sometimes amusing. I was especially taken with the serenade G sang to the maid. Smooth as silk.

Lorna, I don't know why I've missed out on Mozart. I haven't been going to opera as long as the rest of you, but long enough to have seen something of Mozart's. I've listened to our recording of Figaro a number of times, and I've enjoyed it a lot right up to the last act. Then it becomes too much for me and I start thinking "Stop, already!" I never once thought that during Don Giovanni, and I want to hear it all again, right now. But there are so many CDs and videos and DVDs, so many Dons, I'm kind of overwhelmed. Any suggestions, anyone?

Glad you finally discovered the Don. Funny thing...I thought about digging out some VERY OLD (and probably no longer playable) things I had like Tito Schipa singing 'dalla sua pace'...found it on YouTube but it sounds horrible! But what I really found myself wishing for was an old recording I had of Charles Boyer and Agnes Moorehead doing Shaw's "Don Juan in Hell"...the real "final act" of the story, you might say.

Well, Austin, you can't go wrong with the Furtwängler DVD. That's the one with Siepi and it has Kiri Te Kanawa singing Elvira.

It truly is a great opera, isn't it? I wasn't crazy about the acting Saturday, which verged on hamminess at times. But there's no faulting the singing, and I've never known four hours to go by so quickly. This was one of the most satisfying simulcasts I've been to.

But I do think Peter Gelb should inform his set designers that there are colors in the spectrum other than brown and gray.

Had a discussion this morning with others who saw it...agreed that the set, while versatile, was pretty boring. I think it's a stock set they use for a lot of things. I think I remember it from Trovatore. As for the acting, well, there is only one statue in the cast...everybody else gets to chew scenery.

And one of the people I was talking too did note that there seems to be a lot more facial expression with those enormous closeups. I thought the Zerlina handled herself very well, Masetto not so well.